Newly launched mobile company UnWired Nation, with its partner
Apptera, is enabling eBay and others to not only contact customers with
phone calls using a voice interaction system, but to play them ads as
well.

UnWired Nation has been quietly developing its Voice
Publishing Platform to allow clients, including eBay, to automate the
delivery of phone calls to customers and allow them to interact with a
voice-based system. The auction site quietly began using the system in
June of 2006 to call bidders who opt-in for alerts when auctions they
are monitoring are about to end, and then allow them to make one last
bid over the phone.